Full Count: Griz skating right up to edge, again

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It is a puzzling mini tailspin the Montana Grizzlies are in, and perhaps the bye they have this week will let them level out.

Two straight losses have fueled the knights of social media, to paraphrase the great Ted Williams. On one hand you think: Calm down. The Grizzlies football program has given up 40 points-plus in back-to-back games before, and as recently as 2024 (a 52-49 win at Eastern Washington; a 55-48 home loss to Weber State).

On the other hand, for the Griz to score 35-plus in two straight games and lose both? That is new. It hadn't happened until now, and it has put first-year coach Bobby Kennedy and his staff under a microscope.

The Grizzlies third-down defense has been nearly nonexistent over this two-week stretch, with Idaho converting 11 of 14 in its 42-35 win at Washington-Grizzly Stadium Saturday.

Most emblematic of the struggles to come was a third-and-16 from Montana's 45-yard line, on the Vandals' first drive.

For whatever reason, the Grizzlies sent two pass rushers and kept the middle linebacker as a spy. That spy still lost contain on Idaho quarterback Joshua Woods, who danced along the line of scrimmage but somehow not over it and completed a 22-yard pass.

A few plays later, on third-and-8 from the UM 9, the Grizzlies brought four rushers and got pressure, but Woods threaded a perfect pass to Jade Bark for the touchdown.

So maybe, playing with a defense now down seven impact players — cornerback Chris Johnson II went out two plays after his interception and fumble, and we're still talking about Idaho's first drive here — it was pick your poison.

To use a Kennedy press conference crutch, let me just say this: For all the issues with the 3-3-5 defense employed by the previous regime, it was a blitz-happy approach. Pressuring the quarterback in sometimes exotic ways was part of the deal.

Did it always work? No. On Nov. 19, 2022, the Bobcats rushed for 439 yards in a 55-21 rout that left the Grizzlies 7-4 and on the outside of the FCS playoffs.

Or so I thought. As I drove home I learned that the playoff committee gave them a home playoff game over Thanksgiving weekend. Bobby Hauck's bunch had danced along the edge of the playoff bubble but somehow hadn't popped it.

Idaho coach Thomas Ford, Jr., noted that at 2-2 in league, his Vandals have as good a chance as anybody to win the Big Sky. The Grizzlies, 3-2 after dropping games to Northern Arizona and Idaho, less so. But the schedule isn't the worst; they'd be favored in their next three games, at Eastern and at home against Idaho State and Portland State.

Then another trip to Bozeman awaits. The Bobcats will be overdogs, just as they were in 2022, but the Griz — good pass rush willing — could again skate along that bubble but not pop it.

Sports Editor Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 406-758-4463 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.

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